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News : Toehider and Troldhaugen announce “Toehaugen Troldhider Touring Extravaganza”

By on February 10, 2014

Melbourne prog rockers Toehider and Wollongong’s crazy Troldhaugen are teaming up this March for an east coast tour that’s guaranteed to be a whole lot of fun. The former are absolutely smashing the Pozible campaign for their new album “What Kind Of Creature Am I?”, having raised over double the goal in just four days. And the latter have released what is easily one of the best ABBA covers of all time, which you can hear at the bottom of the post.

“If there’s one thing TOEHIDER and TROLDHAUGEN both have in common, other than their somewhat similar names, it’s how difficult it is trying to put together a gig where their sound actually fits in. That’s where THE TOEHAUGEN TROLDHIDER TOURING EXTRAVAGANZA comes in. While TOEHIDER’s Queen-influenced, larger-than-life prog rock and TROLDHAUGEN’s Carnivale-esque, gypsy foot-stomping metal might be worlds apart musically, they’re united by the healthy dose of quirkiness and tongue-in-cheek humour that makes them two of the most entertaining live bands in the country.

Together, the bands will traverse the pubs and clubs of this fine country showcasing material from both of their forthcoming albums, including the new catchy-as-anything TOEHIDER single “Woah!”. Across all three eastern states, things kick off on March 7th at the Valve Bar in Sydney and comes to an end at the Gold Coast’s Miami Shark Bar on the 28th, with an eclectic selection of local bands at each show to be announced.

After Melbourne’s TOEHIDER released their debut EP back in 2008, they caught the world’s attention by releasing an impressive 12 EPs in 12 months, covering everything from up-beat pop through to chilled out folk, each complete with unique artwork and a 2-page comic by Brisbane illustrator Andrew Saltmarsh. 2011 saw the band’s first full album, “To Hide Her”, and some of their catchiest material to date with Triple J’s Zan Rowe calling the crazy I Must Say Yes “the best Monday song ever”. In recent times singer/songwriter Michael Mills has featured alongside members of YES, DREAM THEATER and NIGHTWISH, on AYREON’s album “The Theory of Everything”, and gone viral with his cover of KATE BUSH’s Wuthering Heights passing 300k views in a very short time. Following a busy 2013 spent touring alongside THE PROTOMEN (USA) and DEVIN TOWNSEND (CAN), TOEHIDER are hitting the road in the lead up to their forthcoming album “What Kind Of Creature Am I?”.

Wollongong’s TROLDHAUGEN have had quite the transformation since their beginning as a duo in 2008. Their debut 11-track album “Ramshackle” focused on blending traditional Scandinavian folk music with metal, resulting in equal parts moshing and jigging. Since then their sound has morphed into a combination of more styles than you can count; metal, folk, cabaret, latin, jazz, you name it. Expect rhythmically technical riffing, bombastic tuba lines, jangly mandolin, character voices, wild swing moments, madcap vibraphone rattling and down-tuned slap bass. It’s no wonder they were the most talked about band of Progfest 2013, and scored spots playing alongside both ALESTORM (UK) and KORPIKLAANI (FIN) in the same year.”

Friday 7th March @ Valve Bar, Sydney
Friday 14th March @ The Small Ballroom, Newcastle
Saturday 15th March @ The Beachcomber Hotel, Toukley
Sunday 16th March @ Yours and Owls (RAD), Wollongong
Friday 21st March @ The Basement, Canberra
Sunday 23rd March @ The Tote, Melbourne
Thursday 27th March @ Crowbar, Brisbane
Friday 28th March @ Miami Shark Bar, Gold Coast

The official Facebook event is over here.

About

Mitch Booth is the owner, designer and grand overlord of Metal Obsession. In the few seconds of spare time he has outside of this site, he also hosts a metal radio show over on PBS 106.7fm in Melbourne (Australia) and organises shows under the name Untitled Touring. You should follow him on Twitter.